Scranton--Wilkes-Barre → Lake Charles

Moving from Scranton--Wilkes-Barre to Lake Charles shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 93.6 to 85.9 (100 = US average), so a Scranton--Wilkes-Barre salary needs to be multiplied by 0.92 to hold the same purchasing power in Lake Charles. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $1,252/month in Scranton--Wilkes-Barre to $1,217/month in Lake Charles - a lower monthly bill of $35, or $420/year. That rent delta alone is often the single biggest line item when relocating.

Wages tell the other half. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a median salary of $61,803 in Scranton--Wilkes-Barre versus $58,097 in Lake Charles - a raw gap of $3,706 lower. The Lake Charles labor market has 93,170 tracked jobs against 246,030 in Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, shaping how easy it is to find a comparable role. Combine that with the cost-of-living shift above and you get the real purchasing-power delta, sometimes a "higher salary" is actually a pay cut once rent and RPP are applied.

Safety, schools, and childcare round out the move. FBI UCR violent crime rates near Scranton--Wilkes-Barre and Lake Charles are 250 and 410 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 13.6:1 at origin versus 16.8:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Unfavorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.